Category: The Magic Memories

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Tools of  Magic; A Problem With Daley; Daley’s Do As I Do Variation

These are The Magic Memories 193, gone online Sunday, September 8, 2024, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, and 2023, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

Tools of  Magic

May I remind you of a little anecdote I wrote at the beginning of Card College Volume 1 in regard to the importance of (sleight-of-hand) technique in magic?

Instruments and Tools

A young man resolved to become a woodsman. He bought an ax and set to work. At camp that evening, he proudly told his fellow woodsmen that he had felled nine trees. Inspired by his success, he got up an hour earlier the next morning to increase his productivity. He was dead tired that evening, but had only felled eight trees. Now he was really determined. The next day he worked from dawn to dusk without taking a break. Even so, he only managed to fell six trees. Distressed, he sought the council of an experienced woodsman. The woodsman took the young man’s ax and ran his thumb several times along the edge of the blade, saying calmly, “Young man, every now and then you should sharpen your ax!”

And Thomas Carlyle (not an acquaintance of Francis Carlyle) opined:

Man is a tool-using animal. Without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all.

The other day I received an advertising via email featuring the photo below:

In the accompanying text it said the box is made up of 1,200 pieces.

I immediately went to my magic library, section “card magic”/”gambling-cheating”, quickly made a rough calculation of the card sleights (mind you: just the card sleights) detailed in the Hugard and Braues, the Gansons, the Marlos, the Fortes, the Fulves, the Lorayne’s, and with a big sigh of relief said to myself: “Ours is bigger than yours!”

Indeed, in magic we do have far more than 1,200 sleights – in card magic alone, not taking into account the techniques with other instruments (coins, ropes, silks, cups & balls, etc.).

In my house I only have a few dozen (mechanical) tools that solve 90% of all problems that can be solved with a tool; for other problems I call a workman (curious: in all the years we have called workmen – electricians, plumbers, carpenters, etc. – it has always been a man…).

In magic it is very much the same thing: If you only do a few card tricks, a Control, a Force, a False Shuffle & False Cut, and a few other sleights will be more than sufficient to solve the technical problems these tricks pose. And you can be very successful with them.

However, if card magic becomes your specialty – as a professional or as  an inspired amateur – then you need specific tools to solve  specific problems.

The Buckle False Count will not solve the problem an Elmsley Count, a Jordan Count, a Hamman Count, a Siva Count, etc. can solve.

Same thing with a Double Lift/Double Turnover, a Control, a False Shuffle, a Packet Switch, and so on, through all 46 operating principles (see Sharing Secrets, p. 142).

For this reason everyone who wants to seriously practice magic, first needs to know and master the basic tools for each instruments, and then carefully choose from the thousands of other tools available those that will solve the technical problems of the best tricks in the most elegant way.

To be thought about.

Although Daley does not specify this, it seems obvious that these cards go into your pocket or other easily accessible place, from where the correct one can be produced when the spectator names it.

For those who are wondering what the “V1-p68” means: Daley wrote his notes into four notebooks (that are transcribed in the Daley’s Notebooks – there might be more).

When organizing the entries, the authors took the notes apart and ordered them according to authors (Vernon, Daley, Horowitz, Baker, etc.).

While this is a good idea in some respect, it is not so for the understanding of a note: Some notes can only be understood (if at all…) if they are read in chronological order. However, taking them apart makes this almost impossible.

Enter Gordon Bruce: When I visited him in Glasgow years ago (will relate in a future The Magic Memories), he showed me how he had painstakingly reconstructed every note to put it back into its original chronological order… What a man!

Back to our note: Try it, as it is an excellent idea. I used this for a while, and think it is an obvious idea not to take any four cards, but cards you know are being called more often than others.

This will vary from culture to culture, and country to country, as the “favorite” cards are connected with the best cards in the card games played in each country. As an example the Seven of Diamonds is an important card in Italian “Scopa del quindici”, and the Jacks are the highest cards in Swiss “Jass”, etc.

BTW: You could take more than four cards, but then the deck gets possibly a bit too thin…

This again makes you think of using duplicates in the first place, rather than cards from the deck, in which case you are working with an “Index”, a powerful concept – not only in card magic…

And if you are using an Index, well, then you can comfortably augment the number of cards (complete deck, half a deck, or only one suit). Obviously, the Index card be split up in two or more Indexes…

But what do you do if you do not have any pockets? Why not use the deck as an Index then? Which brings us back to a stacked deck, best of which a memorized deck, because every memorized deck is an Index in itself.

And this, my friends, we have to leave for another day …

Again, this is an idea that will challenge your creativity, if you accept to tackle the question… And this beautifully shows how the universe of card magic is a huge fractal – long live chaos 🙂

Eviva España!

Next week this time I will be on my way to my yearly visit to Juan Tamariz’s home in the south of Spain, and right after that I will attend the Magialdia convention in Vitoria. If you are at the convention, too, make sure to come by and say “hola” and let me know what you would like to read in upcoming The Magic Memories 🙂

Wish you all a successful and happy week,

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Sample of Unexpected Agenda – With Edits

These are The Magic Memories 192, gone online Sunday, September 1, 2024, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, and 2023, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

Sample of Unexpected Agenda – With Edits

I recently read a scientific report that states the efficiency of the human brain starts to deteriorate when the temperature exceeds 23° C (75.2° F).

As I enter my studio to write this week’s The Magic Memories, it is 31° C (87.8° F) outside in the shade, and approximately 35° C (95° F) inside. (No, we do not have air conditioning… but the reason why is not the subject of this blog).

Nonetheless, by working downstairs, where it is cooler, I have been installing the edits for Unexpected Agenda that are now coming in from my editor Max Maxwell and my proofreaders, Mike Vance and Andreas Buchty.

I do not want to bore you with the details of such work, but believe me, this part alone requires several hundred hours of work—on the part of the proofreaders, and on Barbara’s and my part installing the corrections. When you think all the work is done—thinking, planning, researching, writing, rereading, correcting, rewriting, taking photos, doing the layout, rereading everything once more, and correcting it—which has taken almost three years, then you have to add another 20% of time to revise the whole darn thing. It is like at the end of the forty kilometers of a marathon, someone tells you that you have to run another eight kilometers (without extra pay).

So, taking into account the hot weather and the time needed to bring Unexpected Agenda to completion (hopefully in approximately four weeks), working full-time, you will understand why I will keep this week’s The Magic Memories short.

However, I want to give you a glimpse into the book by sharing an excerpt.

When I told Barbara the idea, she suggested that I should give you an edited page rather than the final version. I am not sure if it is a good idea, but… why not? as my friend Dani DaOrtiz would say 🙂

First, you will see how many mistakes I make when writing in English (something you as a reader of The Magic Memories already know!). Second, you might appreciate the nerve-racking work it takes to carefully install the edits while going back and forth between two side-by-side documents on the screen.

It takes me an average of ten minutes per page (day); considering a month has 30/31 days, and a year twelve months, well… I leave the math to you. And that is only the first major edit; two proofreaders with their comments and the mistakes they find follow, although the time to install those edits is admittedly a lot less.

Okay, after this lamento (which is certainly less than that of an Italian soccer player after he has been fouled—as an Italian only child, I am an expert in these things…), I hope you enjoy the “unedited-edited” preview of Unexpected Agenda I have extracted for your entertainment pleasure.

I am not sure if this sample gives an idea of the book’s content, as I just picked one month (May) and three entries at random. Whatever your impression, rest assured that, like in the previous two Agendas, there is a great diversity of topics being discussed (tricks with various props and in diverse genres, subtleties, presentational ideas, professional advice, anecdotes, puzzles & riddles, curiosities, opinions, reports, techniques— a bit heavier on cards than on other instruments, but there are ideas with coins, ropes, calculators, etc.).

I am rereading it now as I install all those edits, and I am very happy with it; it is a book I would want to immediately buy, had I not written it myself 🙂

To read the three entries I have chosen for you, CLICK HERE. (If you open the PDF in a PDF-app, you should be able to read the comments that go with the edits, should you desire to do so.)

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Magic and AI; Minor and Major Magic; On the False Swing Cut (and Bobby Bernard)

These are The Magic Memories 191, gone online Sunday, August 25, 2024, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, and 2023, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

Magic an AI

For an upcoming project I am experimenting with AI, specifically with ChatGPT, to see how useful it could be.

It occurred to me to ask the following question: What answers would you suggest if you were a magician and were asked by a spectator, “May I shuffle the cards?” Give ten answers.

Answers from ChatGPT: Here are ten potential responses a magician could use when asked, “May I shuffle the cards?”:

1. “I’ll tell you what—I’ll shuffle them in a way you’ve never seen before. Watch closely!”
2. “In this trick, the cards have already been shuffled by fate itself!” (proceed with the trick)
3. “I would, but these cards are a little camera-shy when someone else handles them.” (with a playful smile)
4. “These cards are in a very delicate balance right now, but I promise, it’s worth it!”
5. “Actually, I’ve trained these cards to only respond to me. Let’s see if they behave!”
6. “How about this: you cut the deck instead? Your influence is just as powerful!”
7. “This deck is in a specific order that will blow your mind in just a second!”
8. “If I let you shuffle, these cards might give away all their secrets!”
9. “I would, but these cards are already under a spell—shuffling might break it!”
10. “Trust me, the magic works best when these cards stay just as they are.”

Some of the answers are good, don’t you think?

And some others make you think… All in all, this is not such a bad yield.

Nothing more to add.

On the False Swing Cut

Again, I come back to Card College Volume 1, chapter on False Cuts, and would like to make a few comments on what has become the most popular False Cut of that chapter after its publication, the False Swing Cut.

To save you the time of having to look it up, just in case you are not sure what I am talking about, CLICK HERE to see the one-page description from the first edition.

Since then there has been a revised second edition and twenty reprints (state of 2024), with a total of ca. 30’000 copies, that is for volume 1 alone… Not so bad for a book which I had simply intended for the German-speaking magicians who at that time did not have any introductory works to card magic. The rest sort of just happened…

Anyway, at that time (I started writing volume 1 in 1990, it then appeared in 1992) Internet was not available, let alone the archives we have today, so neither I nor Stephen Minch, my publisher, nor anyone consulted knew where this False Cut came from. We later found out it was Bobby Bernard’s idea. British magician, actor and coach to many magicians was quite a character, and I had the great pleasure of getting together with him on several occasions over the years I visited England quite often. In spite of his gentlemanly reserve, a trait he shared with most of his fellow countrymen, he took to me and gave me many useful pieces of advice. I really enjoyed reading Val Andrew’s book on Bernard, titled The Coin and Card Magic of Bobby Bernard (Magico Magazine, USA 1982), because it brought back many memories.

Arghh, I am digressing again… that’s what happens if you don’t edit a text… but that’s the deal with this blog as the habitués know 🙂

So, back to our False Swing Cut…

Those who follow my publications will remember that after a few years, and motivated by a comment by my Parisian friend Yves Carbonnier made, I stopped using Bernard’s “tap thing” (fig . 2 of the Card College description), and now simply cut the packets onto the table in two straight movements, which looks much more natural. Later I made it into The Acts Interruptus False Cut, but that’s another conversation.

Looking over my notes on this move, I came across the following comment, which I have copied and pasted into my notebook, however, I apologize for not being able to give a credit (if someone knows, please write in to let me know). Here is the original note (with a few edits of mine for clarification):

The False Swing cut to the table from Card College Volume 1 might be the best false cut from the hands to the table.

But it might not.

If you are holding the deck in Dealing Position and do this cut, it looks wrong.

The problem is, if you were to do a regular cut with the deck held in Dealing Position to the table, the right hand takes the top half to the table, then comes back and takes the bottom half.

In the False Swing Cut, you grab the deck, swing it, and then cut. That’s a little too much movement at that moment for my taste.

But, suppose you are holding the deck in your right hand, and you want to do a real cut to the table. The most natural, direct way is to put it in your left hand, and take away the top half to the table, then complete the cut.

The False Swing Cut to the table simulates this action perfectly, and the extra swing cut action disappears in the larger, motivated action of placing the deck in the left hand.

So, if you can motivate the deck into your right hand first, this is a great False Cut to the table. Move something on the left side of the table with your left hand, which motivates taking the deck in your right hand. Then false swing cut to that spot, and make a bit of a hands-off gesture when you are done.

Makes sense, agree?

Obviously, as mentioned earlier, in this handling you do not use the “tap,” but carry the packets straight onto the table.

Also, the swing-cut action is minimal, not pronounced as it would be in a regular Swing Cut, it is microscopic, just enough for the right hand to grab the lower packet; for this reason the name I gave this False Cut, “The False Swing Cut,” is not a good name for this particular handling… But then again, as Vernon liked to say, you have to “use your head” at all times… especially before elections…

I agree, however, that if you do the False Swing Cut as is in Card College, then – and only then – the Swing Cut may be executed as a Swing Cut.

Which reminds me of yet another lovely handling Berlin’s Axel Hecklau did for me when we discussed the sleight over dinner at the Hintertuxer Zaubertage (21st JUL, 2019): Swing cut the top packet into your left hand, where it falls into Dealing Position. Immediately square the packet, which you are  still holding in your right hand in End Grip, at the fingertips in a pronounced way, looking at it, and saying, “We’ll cut the cards… but very neatly…” Now drop the right hand’s packet onto the table, then take the packet from your left hand and drop it onto the one already on the table in an unsquared condition, complying with the theory of the Actions of Recall (Sharing Secrets, p. 118); finally carefully square the deck… that’s were I may add, “… Swiss precision.” You may have to check with the Chamber of Commerce of your country…

I hope this clears it all up 🙂

Lest I forget… Just realized that I possibly have already written (partially) about this problem before, somewhere in my old Secret Newsletters, and that Mike Maxwell, in The Cardwright (1988), page 137, published a handling by Larry Jennings that comes very close to what you just read. Not sure if great minds think alike, or if one is just a bit more forgetful than the other. But as long as there is no evil intention behind it, all is good, right 🙂

Today is possibly the last “hot day” of the month (I hope!), with ca. 35 degrees centigrade in the shade, time for a large Gin Tonic, and time to…

… wish you all a successful and happy week,

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Remembering Gabi Pareras; The Doppelgänger Cards – Update on Hat Trick from Card College Volume 1

These are The Magic Memories 190, gone online Sunday, August 18, 2024, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, and 2023, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

Remembering Gabi Pareras

As I leafed through the first volume of my Card College, I was reminded of a conversation I had with Barcelona’s Gabi Pareras (1965–2020) shortly before his untimely passing.

I met Gabi relatively late in my magical life, but when we finally did meet—around twenty years ago—we became instant friends. We shared a deep affection for our “father in magic,” Ascanio, and were both passionately devoted to the endless complexities of magic: its effects, techniques, history, theory, literature, and much more.

Gabi was very fond of my books, and he owned all of them that had been translated into Spanish. He, unfortunately, neither read nor understood English, a fact I found quite astonishing given that he was someone I indisputably considered a genius—a term I do not use lightly, as I can count the number of “geniuses” in magic on the fingers of two hands.

Whenever we had a session, sooner or later, he would inevitably speak of Gran Escuela Cartomágica, the Spanish version of Card College, so skillfully translated by Rafael Benatar from the original German. Gabi was always generous with his compliments, and needless to say, this greatly flattered me. It’s one thing for a beginner to enjoy my books, as they were written with that audience in mind, but when someone of Gabi Pareras’ caliber expresses enthusiasm, the praise carries much more weight.

In the last decade of his life, Gabi made a significant part of his modest income from teaching magic, specifically card magic. He held classes at four different levels, teaching five days a week, from seven to eleven in the evening. When he first told me about this, I had to smile—it reminded me of “office work.” But, of course, this was merely a reflection of his very structured approach to studying and practicing magic.

He had the most detailed and sophisticated curriculum I have ever seen before or since, and I was deeply flattered when he mentioned that the structure of Card College had been very helpful in creating it.

Gabi also had countless ideas—both small and significant—about the techniques, effects, presentations, and theories presented in the Card College books, some of which, he told me, he incorporated into his courses.

Gabi excelled at some of the most intricate card magic I have ever seen, arguably only surpassed by a few of Tamariz’s impossibilities.

Despite this, Gabi and I had a tradition he called “let’s play beginners.” We would discuss simple things—mostly tricks—that became far from simple after we had analyzed and synthesized them.

One such discussion, I recall, concerned the “Hat Trick” on page 62 of Card College Volume 1.

Lest I forget…

If you care to compare the version just described, here renamed “Doppelgänger Cards,” with the original “Hat Trick” from Card College Volume 1, you may find that these are, indeed, two distinctly different pieces of magic.

Undoubtedly, “Hat Trick” served its purpose, offering a sufficiently engaging effect for someone who had mastered the techniques presented in the first three chapters of the book. (It is important to recall that the tricks were confined to employing only the methods taught in the preceding lessons, thereby significantly narrowing the scope of possibilities.)

But now, over thirty years later (!), with three decades of professional performance experience across the globe, coupled with the insights gained from delivering countless lectures, full-day masterclasses, and individual coaching sessions, and after authoring another dozen books, I find myself viewing the same material from an entirely different vantage point.

The simple remains simple, yet now I recognize that even the simplest of things, when revisited with newly-acquired knowledge and enlightened inspiration, embodies a simplicity that conceals great complexity, to paraphrase Miguel de Unamuno, one of Ascanio’s cherished philosophers and poets.

Whereas in “Hat Trick,” the three cards were simply selected and then their mates discovered—a neat display of skill—now the entire routine resonates on an emotional level. The theme of Doppelgängers is intriguing (to say nothing of the word itself), fostering a playful interaction with the audience and lending the performance a deeper sense of meaning.

In any case, I trust you found today’s reflections enjoyable… I shall now raise a cool drink to your health, as the weather here in Switzerland remains warm. After a light dinner (well, relatively “light”…), I will return to work on a significant project that I will share with you once it becomes official. No, it is not Unexpected Agenda, as I am still awaiting feedback from my proofreaders. In the meantime, like a marathon runner who cannot afford to stop upon reaching the finish line, I have already embarked on yet another ambitious endeavor. 🙂

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Summer vacation 🙂

These are The Magic Memories 189, gone online Sunday, August 11, 2024, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, and 2023, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

The Magic Memories 189, as well as myself, will take a summer vacation and be back next week, unless we decide to extend our vacation… vita brevis, ars longa… and so is summer 🙂

Wish you all a successful and happy week,

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: CCCCC – The Criss-cross Cut Count Convincer Force; The Top-card Dribble Glimpse; Mysterious Kid Cutting the Aces

These are The Magic Memories 188, gone online Sunday, August 4th, 2024, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, and 2023, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

It is full summertime here in Basel, Switzerland, and it is hot. I cannot say whether it is my age, or my overweight, or the global warming, or all together, but it is exhausting and almost feels like work.

Fortunately, in such situations I am quick to remind myself of what Confucius is reported to have said: “If in life you do what you like, you will never have to work.” I have appointed myself to that occupation a long time ago, so…

This wise man hit the nail on the head, but still, it is a bit too warm…

Therefore, and in spite of all climatic adversities, I am working full-time at finishing Unexpected Agenda. 

That is, Barbara and me are working, Barbara having already passed by far the two-hundred-hour work time to produce the photos and illustrations for the book, and is now layouting each and every page of what will very probably be a 384-page publication. (I started the Unexpected Agenda-file in October 2021, so by now have already invested over one thousand work hours in the project.)

Recently, Maxwell Pritchard, who already helped us with Sharing Secrets in an admirable way, has joined the team and is donating most of his time in August to editing the book (I cannot count his hours…). As a favor to him, please, nobody who is reading these The Magic Memories tell him about them: If he read them, he would suffer a heart-attack (as I have said repeatedly, the The Magic Memories are completely unedited, and I read through them only once, with all the consequences, for which I take up all responsibility…).

Soon Mike Vance will reread the entire book once again, to make sure that I correctly installed all of Max’s edits; if you count at least ten minutes per page, that will be another 3’840 minutes (64 hours!).

After that we will print out every page for the second time (you have to print the text to see how it really looks…), look through everything again for the n-th time, and finally send off everything as a print-PDF to my friend Francesco Mugnai, who sits in Florence, Italy (yes, “bella Italia!”), with his Florence Art Edizioni, and will set the finishing touches on the printable PDF, plus create the cover and supervise the printing, binding, cellophaning, shipping, etc. All this done by different companies to optimize the costs of production, which are getting worse every day.

Add to this that eventually I will be paid in Euros and in Dollars, once the book starts to sell, and that these two currencies keep falling toward the Swiss Franc (one Dollar used to be 1 Franc 80 Cents in 2000, today it is less than 90 Cents…), but the Cappuccino now costs up to CHF 6.50 (today equivalent to €7 and US$7.6), well, then you might wonder why we are doing all this.

Answer: I am stupid, but I would not know anything else to do…

I had to say this, it’s therapy… thank you for listening 🙂

All this said, let us turn to today’s The Magic Memories, all on cards 🙂

The CCCCC Force – The Criss-cross Cut Count Convincer Force

No, the sleight did not originate at FFFF…

The first three C’s  are a natural from the Criss-cross Cut Force, also known as Cross-cut Force.

The “Count Convincer” part came from rereading what is possibly Dai Vernon’s very first publication – certainly the first publication for the lay market – namely Secrets of Magic, from 1924 (take note!), in a trick named “The Whispering Queen” (I will reproduce that with an addition on one of the 365 days of Unexpected Agenda).

The spectator is handed the deck for shuffling. Ask another spectator to cut it, and then complete the cut by placing the lower half askew on top of the other; that is the standard procedure.

However, note that the deck was shuffled before it was cut, or else the cut does not make any sense. You will obviously have to glimpse the top card now, if it does not matter which card is forced, or replace the force card(s) from the Palm, or (false) shuffle the deck yourself (use the Curry–Tamariz telescoped-deck ploy).

Ask, “Do you know how many cards you cut off?” This is, of course, Ascanio’s “Clouding Question” (Sharing Secrets, p. 30).

Quickly count the upper packet’s cards face down onto the table, e.g., twenty-two.

Immediately take the top card of the tabled packet and give it to the first spectator, “…you get the twenty-third…” Give the next card to a second spectator, “……you get the twenty-fourth…” Ask the third spectator to take the next card, commenting, “…and you get the twenty-fifth card. Please look at the cards and remember them.” This is in case you want to force three cards. Adapt to one card, etc.

Lest I forget…

In spite of its simplicity, the Criss-cross Cut Force has received quite a bit of attention over the years. If you are interested in the subject, the indefatigable Jon Racherbaumer has published an e-book available from library.com, titled CRISS-CROSSINGS – Unleashing the X-Force, 34 pages all dedicated to this polyvalent Force. It was actually while reading in that publication that I forced myself to look again at the Criss-cross Cut Force, identifying its illogical bits. As a result I came up with what I think to be the best handling of it, at least to my criteria, and I called it “The Arete Crisscross Force”; it will be the entry of December 10 in the upcoming Unexpected Agenda, and the first time it sees print in English. 

The Top-card Dribble Glimpse

This is an extension, or variation, if you will, of what I have dubbed the Top-card Riffle Glimpse in Card College Volume 2 (p. 355).

Cannot remember if I ever told you how I got the idea of the Top-card Riffle Glimpse.

In an older book by Rolf Andra (Karten-Kombinationen 1949 and Karten-Magie – Das Handbuch der Magie 1956), he described what he called “das Ankippen”, where you lifted the inner end of the deck’s top card to glimpse it.

Albeit practical, I found it a bit obvious. So, I thought that the Glimpse would be better covered if the deck’s inner end was lightly riffled, and the last card lifted off a bit more and its index sighted.

This was a bit better, but still obvious to the attentive spectator.

Then I was reminded of Erdnase’s “Blind Riffles – I. To Retain the Top Stock.” Look at figure 6 on p. 35:

Erdnase glimpses the top card during a Riffle Shuffle by slightly drawing it inward as the riffle ends.

If you have older cards, you might not be able to cleanly pull the top card inward.

So, I started to obtain a break under the top card before starting the riffle, and this worked like a charm.

It had the added advantage, that I could sight the index of the top card already when mid-way through the shuffle, so that I could lift the gaze and look into the audience, saying something, as the Riffle Shuffle ended.

In an act of interdisciplinarity, I transferred this idea to Rolf Andra’s original “Ankippen” and as a result got the Top-card Riffle Glimpse.

And now for the variation, which is really minimal, you will say, but I found it to be really very practical: Hold the deck in Dealing Position, obtain a break under the top card, briefly holding it with the little finger. With the other hand grip the deck in End Grip, the thumb taking over the break, and then dribble the cards onto the table.

As with the Top-card Riffle Glimpse, you will be able to glimpse the top card’s inner left index when you have dribbled off about half the cards, so you can then look up and say something (meaningful!), e.g., “Your card is somewhere here in the pack – please do not forget it.”

To avoid flashing the maneuver, turn to the spectator furthest to your left, if you are right-handed.

Mysterious Kid Cutting the Aces

This next item will probably only please a few among you, so I apologize to the rest, but I find it a lovely item.

I got the inspiration by reading “The Cull Riffle of the Mysterious Kid” on p. 212 of Dai Vernon’s Revelations, which Vernon called “the final book of the New Testament” 🙂 I still prefer the edition of 1984 that respects the original pagination of The Expert at the Card Table, and has Persi Diaconis’ superlative “Introduction”.

Here it is, directly from my Evernote-Notebook:

Cutting the Aces with Block Transfer

Variation I

Inspired by reading Cull Riffle Mysterious Kid

Effect

The deck is riffle shuffled 4 times, each time about a quarter of the deck is cut forward to the table. Eventually 4 packets rest on the table – the top card of each is an Ace.

Method

False shuffle and false cut to retain the 4 Aces on top.

Do the 1st part of Vernon’s Cold Deck Cut, ending up with about one quarter of the deck separated on top. Undercut at the break to the left, and Riffle Shuffle the packets together, letting an Ace fall last. Do Vernon’s Triumph Shuffle, transferring the top Ace onto the right packet, which is then pulled out and cut forward to the table: it will have the Ace on top, with the balance of the deck having the other 3 Aces on top.

Repeat twice, leaving 4 packets on the table, each with an Ace on top.

To vary the handling, use a Pull-out Shuffle With Block-transfer, or a Push-through With Block-transfer, or a Zarrow Shuffle, or a Slip Cut (on the last 2 Aces).

Variation II

In my small white notebook it says «Fechter Cutting the Aces with Zarrow», but I couldn’t find it in Fechter’s book. It reminds me of a similar effect and handling shown to me by Jason England in Toronto, in a lunch break at 31 Faces North.

Effect

The deck is riffle shuffled and run cut, then about half the cards lifted off – the top card of the lower packet is an Ace, the card below and above being shown as indifferent cards. The deck is completed, and the other 3 Aces are found in a similar way.

Method

The 4 Aces are on top. False shuffle and false cut to retain them there.

Add 2 x-cards in 2 ordinary Riffle Shuffles. Show that there are no Aces on the top and the bottom.

For the first Ace: Do the first two parts of Vernon’s Cold Deck Cut, Zarrow under 2 cards, retain a break between the two packets as you square up, slide the deck forward, and then cut and complete the cut. Turn the first Ace face up and leave it on the table.

For the second Ace: Do the first two parts of Vernon’s Cold Deck Cut, undercut to the left, Zarrow under 2 Aces, retain a break between the two packets as you square up. Slide deck forward and with your right hand cut off at the break, turn top card of tabled packet face up to reveal the second Ace. Show top few cards and bottom few cards of tabled packet to be indifferent cards. Complete deck by placing the packet in your right hand on top of tabled packet.

The third Ace: Dribble cards on the table, as you say that the third Ace is at position 37.» Do the Benzais Spin Cut to cut off apparently 37 cards and reveal the third Ace. Show top and bottom cards, and then complete the deck to bring the last Ace on top.

The forth Ace: Add 2 x-cards in 2 ordinary Riffle Shuffles. Show that there are no Aces on the top and the bottom.

Do the first two parts of Vernon’s Cold Deck Cut, undercut to the left, Zarrow under 2 Aces, retain a break between the two packets as you square up. Undercut to the left. Riffle the packet from the right hand into the left packet, dropping the top 2 cards last. Do a Vernon Simple Push-through, run-cutting the extracted packet on top of the tabled packet, retaining a break. Slide deck forward, cut at break, and reveal top card of tabled packet to be the last Ace.

To end replace the 4 Aces on top of the balance of the deck and do three Riffle Shuffle à la Vernon Top Stock Control (see Secret Agenda, May 26 – Top-Stock Control with Riffle Shuffle… this is sensational) ; reveal the Aces to have returned to the top.

Wish you all a successful and happy week,

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Cups & Balls from “Tio Cigueño” (1839) by Joaquín Matas with video; Jimmy, the Card Cat

These are The Magic Memories 187, gone online Sunday, July 28th, 2024, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, and 2023, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

Cups & Balls from “Tio Cigueño” (1839) by Joaquín Matas

In The Magic Memories 186 I made a few comments on Kai Borchers, alias Kalibo, performing at the “Hintertuxer Zaubertage” his Cups & Balls routine that lasted over twenty minutes, and how excellent I thought it was in spite of me having expected the contrary due to its length.

Well, there I also mentioned the talk Jesus Etcheverry, Toni Cachadiña, José Angel Suarez and I gave on the history of magic books in Spain at the Magialdia convention in Vitoria in 2016.

At the end of the almost 90-minute presentation we had asked our friend Joaquín Matas, one of Spain’s most successful and celebrated professionals and one of the most outstanding students of Arturo de Ascanio and Gabi Pareras, if he would be interested in presenting the Cups & Balls routine as it appeared in Juan Mieg’s landmark book El brujo en sociedad from 1839.

The book is one of the most important in early Spanish magic literature. There are reprints available – in Spanish, of course – one of which by Frechiné Editores with an almost 20-page introduction by Juan Tamariz, to whom this is one of the favorite books. Since this edition is no longer available, I should ask Juan Tamariz on my next visit if he would allow me to scan and translate the text for you. Remind me…

Similar to “Erdnase”, the book is mostly referred to as “El Tio Cigueño”, the alias of author Johannes (Juan) Mieg, rather than by its full title “El brujo en sociedad, o sea breve instruccion para aprender a ejecutar con destreza muchos juegos de manos, y otras varias suertes curiosas y divertidas”. Good idea…

In the book that boasts 350 pages, plus five two- and three-part fold-outs, the description of the Cups & Balls routine goes from p. 146, titled “Juegos de cubiletes”, to p. 191, that is almost fifty pages of text without a single illustration (there are a few on the fold-outs, though…).

As a historical curiosity I would like to mention that Juan Mieg originated from Switzerland, having been born in Basel, the same city I was born…

He lived from 1780 to 1859, where exactly one hundred years later, in 1959, I would be born.

Therefore, I will have to double-check if I might not be his reincarnation! (I must, though, ask Magic Christian and Steve Cohen for advice, as a rumor is going about that they might possibly be the reincarnation of Hofzinser and Malini, respectively…)

Anyway, below is – for your summer entertainment pleasure – the video clip extracted from the presentation we did at Magialdia 2016, with the kind permission of Joaquin, the performer, and José Ángel, the organizer and producer of Magialdia.

I assure you that you will be able to enjoy the performance even though you might not understand a word of Spanish, which is Spanish of the 18th century anyway, and I would like you to consider the situation and cultural context this performance took place. If you try to understand why certain things are done the way they are done, you will gain a better understanding of magic, I promise.

So, watch the video like an innocent bystander in the streets of an unnamed city in the late Age of Enlightenment, just for enjoyment, and then like an art critic would the painting of an old master.

Now, how was that for a C&B Routine, eh?

For the benefit of those who do not understand Spanish, the last words of “Juan Mieg”, who at the end has converted back to Joaquín Matas, are, “What you have seen is only a part of the routine as it is published in the book… the part with the production of the oranges is about half-way through the entire routine!”

Jimmy, the Card Cat

A few days back my young friend Lorenz Schär, one of Switzerland’s outstanding talents, visited.

As usual we spent a non-stop-magic-talk long afternoon plus an evening-night that ended in an Alsatian gourmet restaurant (how else?).

Below is a photo he sent in from our session, proving that card tricks put certain individuals asleep…

Anyway, it is a hot summer day in many parts of the world, it is summer vacation time, and therefore I do not want to tax your patience too much.

Besides, we are working (almost) around the clock setting the finishing touches on Unexpected Agenda – right now I put my “final” edits on every one of the 365 entries before all goes to Max Pritchard, my editor, and Mike Vance, my proof-reader. After we have installed all the edits, corrections, additions, etc. we hope to be able to get the PDF to the printer, so that the book can be with you for the Holiday Season.

Briefly: I quit this week’s The Magic Memories here, and go to work on the book…  All your cheers, support, encouragement, etc. are invited 🙂

Wish you all a successful and happy week,

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Hintertuxer Zaubertage 2024 – a report

These are The Magic Memories 186, gone online Sunday, July 21st, 2024, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, and 2023, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

Hintertuxer Zaubertage 2024

I am back from this most unusual and unique “magic convention”; as promised here are a few impressions.

First of all I should say that this is already the tenth year in a row they book me for that event, interrupted by three Covid Years, and always in combination with two or three other magic colleagues.

In the past  I have done this together with Markus Zink, Jörg Alexander, Christopher Borer, Thomas Otto, Alex Ray, Wolfgang Moser, and several others, all highly qualified performers and workshop instructors. I do not even try to understand why they keep asking me back year for year… it probably is because I have not yet drunk myself through their exquisite wine list 🙂

The Set-up

There are several things that set this event apart from any other event I have attended in my magical life.

First, it takes place in a location where “fox and hare say goodnight to each other”, as a German idiomatic expression says, meaning “in the middle of nowhere”, which is actually at the end of a valley, at a height of ca. 4’500 feet, that is limited by a huge glacier that allows skiing all year round.

This again means that once you are stuck in that beautiful four-star-plus hotel, you will not move away from there for the entire duration of your stay.

At almost all other conventions attendants get off in all directions to go to restaurants, bars or shows (Las Vegas), but here everyone gathers in the lobby and the bar, and the magic goes on until the last falls from the chair…

View from hotel room

Second, the hotel, which boasts a spa with swimming pool, sauna, etc. , offers full meals, one of the best breakfast buffets I know (and believe me I know A LOT), with exclusive regional specialties, virtually all made by hand, including half a dozen breads, salads, sausages, home-made jams, juices, and a large etcetera.

Then they have what they call a “Late Lunch Buffet” which starts at 2pm and could keep you busy for hours, plus all-day free soft drink, coffee and tea… and that is just the lead-in to the seven-course dinner.

What is absolutely fantastic about it is that unlike what sounds like the food offer of a luxury ocean liner, this is all in small portions, so that you do not gain weight even by a gram, not even I do!

Third, the attendance is limited to about twenty people. This year, due to the European Soccer Championship and other conflicting activities, we had only thirteen participants, which we split into two groups.

Fourth, the program ensures that every participant receives individual attention and there is lots of time to discuss all aspects of magic if you are so inclined.

This year’s artists and workshop conductors, beside myself, where Pit Hartling, who needs no introduction, and to me is one of Germany’s top magician, with unequalled skill, originality, and performance abilities, the three qualities which make up the Artistic Trinity; I consider him a genius, who has only one fault, as he drinks apple juice instead of wine for dinner 🙂

The second artist this year was Kai Borchers, Kalibo, a street performer with lots of experience working in other venues, too, such as cruise ships, and whom I had never heard of before, but who very pleasantly surprised me with his human qualities and his artistic competence.

I think we made up an ideal team to teach and perform magic.

Night Before Party

Although the activities start on Thursday mooning, due to the location, everyone is already there the night before.

Years ago, when they first booked me, it was just an informal welcome affair with drinks, but since I cannot not do magic 🙂 I immediately suggested that I would give a “Night Before Lecture”, which I did for the next years, each time on a different subject, and reduced to ca. one hour.

This year I asked Pit and Kai if they wanted to join in, and what a good idea this was, as Pit started out with a twenty minute card act that floored everyone present, at the same entertaining them royally. This blog is too short to tell you about the effects he did, but believe me, they were all outstanding.

I did an introductory talk to the subject I was going to treat in my workshop, namely Stand-up Card Magic, and as a finale did my Card Stab (“Stickler” from my Stand-up Card Magic), a trick which would serve as guiding theme to discuss the various problems of performing standing-up in front of an audience.

In my short talk I handed out my contact sheet to all attendants and explained how I use it to make sure I get all the necessary conditions needed for a successful performance. This is as important as the tricks and their performance, in my opinion and professional experience (see my comments below in the section “Saturday Night Gala”).

Kai then closed the 75-minutes explaining what he would discuss in his workshop, and performing his street-version of the Endless Loop with a captivating presentation.

After that the hosts welcomed all with a coupe of real French champagne (is there another one?), a vintage Moet Chandon, served from a magnum bottle… that tells you the class of the affair.

The Program

With three workshop instructors and thirteen participants leaves a lot of possibilities for magical interactions and teach-ins.

Thursday and Friday mornings started at 10:30 with each participant taking a 40-minute private class with one of us instructors. This is a very successful unit I introduced last year, where each participant can ask any type of question, discuss a problem, get a personal coaching. etc.

After a one-hour break each group attends a three-hour workshop on a specific subject; this goes from 1pm to 5 pm, interrupted by a one-hour break for “Late Lunch”, and taking place on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

After that most take some time off with their families who accompany them, in the spa, sauna, swimming-pool, etc., only to meet again at the bar for drinks at around 7pm, in order to go to dinner a little after.

At 10 pm on every day there is an activity: Thursday has a 75-minute Q&A Session, where every participant writes three questions on three billets, which are subsequently drawn by each instructor, who then tried to answer within three minutes. That is always great fun, but also instructional.

Friday is a special night, were most of the participants perform in a kind of open show they organize all by themselves, to an audience of ca. forty people made up of the hotel guests, who get a free magic show, and the rest of us. There is always a lot of excitement around this, and my impression is that this is what they enjoy most, at least some of them.

Saturday Night Gala

One of the highlights for everyone is the final gala on Saturday night that officially closes the three-day event.

It starts after dinner at 10 pm and is in its entirety carried out by the workshop instructors, one of which acts as the MC, a simple but efficient formula.

The real challenge of this part is that it takes place on a floor at the end of a beautiful hotel lobby, which has not been constructed for visual performances, as most hotel lobbies are not, of course.

However, thanks to years of experience as a professional working in practically all conceivable situations, and with the help of the hotel staff, we managed to shift around the various types of seats, bar stools, and small tables, so that all of the ca. sixty spectators had a good view on what the artists presented; this, coupled with a good sound system and an adequate lighting, set the stage – forgive the pun – for a successful show.

The only thing that is also needed, especially in such difficult situations, are capable performers who know how to present their tricks and how to interact with an audience, and who also know which repertoire to choose.

This goes to show that it is not enough to be a technical virtuoso and to know a lot of tricks, but it is as important to know what type of tricks work in what type of situation for what type of audience.

Precisely this was part of my three-hour-workshop, besides the tricks and techniques taught, but I wonder how many really understood that…

Back to the gala: Pit Hartling took it upon himself to act as the fil rouge of the show, which he started with a 25-minute segment and his incredible Linking Fingerring Routine, the one he had also done at the Magic Castle and which made several “experts” scratch their heads.

He then topped it with an original take on the Rubik’s Cube.

This was the second time I had seen Pit in a parlor situation, and found him as brilliant and at ease with the audience as he is in a close-up situation, where he is simply world-class.

After a lovely and emotional introduction by Pit, I was on next and opened with my interpretation of Shigeo Takagi’s Rope Routine, a piece that has been in my repertoire for the past thirty plus years.

It is one of the few pieces in my repertory that plays equally well in front of a dozen people in a private home, as it does before an audience of 800 on a large stage.

The routine, which after an introductory sequence of seven (!) visual effects that last two minutes, continues with an assisting lady who is kept busy in several surprising interactive effects, ending with her performing a restoration to her own amazement and to the entertainment pleasure of the audience. Although the total of twelve effects have meanwhile become a standard of rope magic acts, I know how much time, thinking, and experience it took me to bring it to the present form, with a multi-lingual presentation inspired by Paul Potassy, and with a pacing that can keep a sophisticated audience’s attention for eight minutes – that is not an easy matter.

Also, I have developed strategies that keep it “fresh” even after having done it for over thirty years. Among other things, I do this by always thinking of Heraclitus, who said about the passing of time: “You never step twice into the same river.” It is exactly the same for magic, just a bit different…

Had I known, years ago, how this routine would form part of my magical career that has virtually taken me around the world, I would gladly have paid $10’000 for it. This is also true for some other pieces, among them the Card Stab I do, and with which I finished my part and which lasted all in all a bit over twenty minutes.

Pit came back and introduced Kalibo, who did over twenty minutes with just the Cups & Balls! When he told me he would do this before the show, I was very skeptical about its success, but after having seen him (he worked without a mike!), I gladly admit that his performance was superb, with a very unique style, yes, a bit loud, but perfectly in sync with his street-performer persona.

I had only seen Joaquin Matas do such a long routine, years ago, from the Minguet, the earliest Spanish magic book from 1733, as the finale of a talk on old Spanish magic books I did together with Toni Cachadina, Jesus Etcheverry and Manolo Tena.

I will try to dig out the video of it for one of the upcoming The Magic Memories (I hope I will not forget…)…

Anyway, Kalibo did a great job, and together with Pit and myself we were able to offer a very divers show, with different performing styles and different types of tricks.

Needless to say that the audience in that remote corner of the Tirolean Alps did not expect this type of show, and therefore reacted sufficiently enthusiastic about it to confirm to the three of us that we are in the right kind of profession 🙂

Like every year, the gala ends with the “graduation” of the participants: Each gets to come forward and receives a nice certificate of attendance, together with a photo with the “stars” 🙂

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Photo “Hintertuxer Zaubertage; The Magic Memories pauses

These are The Magic Memories 185, gone online Sunday, July 14th, 2024, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, and 2023, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

Hintertuxer Zaubertage

As announced in The Magic Memories 184, as you are reading this – provided you read it on SUN, 14th July 2024 – I am attending a small convention in the Austrian Alps, more precisely in Hintertux, which is why this week’s The Magic Memories goes on hiatus.

Below is a photo taken in front of the “Hotel Bergland” that now has been renamed “Adler Inn”, less than a mile away from one of Austria’s most famous glaciers, which promises skiing all year round.

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Where to Get Hidden Agenda; Actus Interruptus Double Undercut; Handling Variation of McMillen’s “Injog Shuffle Control”

These are The Magic Memories 184, gone online Sunday, July 7th, 2024, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, and 2023, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

Today I offer to look at two techniques, a False Cut/Transfer Cut and a Control, hoping that it might be useful to some of you, or at least make you find your own solutions to the questions.

But before we get into this, here is a brief piece of information that should please some.

Where to Get Hidden Agenda

Last week I gave you an update on my upcoming Unexpected Agenda, and this week I confirm that we have started making the photos and some of the graphics that will go to illustrate the book. Furthermore, the first month has been layouted…

I also mentioned that although Secret Agenda is still available thanks to the publishers Hermetic Press and Penguin Magic, Hidden Agenda, by another publisher, probably will never see reprint again… no comment (but you can get the e-book HERE).

However, Maxwell Pritchard, who has undertaken the gargantuan task of translating and annotating Volkmann’s monumental history of magic (available from The Conjuring Arts Research Center), and who also edited my Sharing Secrets and promised to help with Unexpected Agenda, tells me that he was able to obtain a new hardcopy of Hidden Agenda from UK’s Merchant of Magic.

I admit I had never heard of this dealer, whose webshop looks very professional, and lo and behold, upon checking their site, it says that Hidden Agenda is still available at a very reasonable price.

I remember that as a youngster I ordered most of my magic books from another UK dealer, Magic Books by Post, which does no longer seem to exist, at least not under that name. Doing so was a major enterprise, as I had to go to the post office here in Switzerland, fill out a complicated form to transfer money, which I then did. Then I had to wait what felt like an eternity, but finally received those wonderful books, full of miraculous instructions to that infinite universe of magic, mostly card magic.

Nowadays all that has changed: with a few clicks you can get almost everything, from almost everywhere, almost immediately. Having experienced both of these worlds, I can definitively say that I would not want to miss the emotions I experienced at that time, priceless.

Anyway, if you are interested, to order a hardcopy of Hidden Agenda from Merchant of Magic CLICK HERE.

Actus Interruptus Double Undercut

I minor problem of card magic that is being debated to this day, is how to transfer cards from bottom to top with a Double or Triple Undercut. (If I write “minor” I do not mean that it is unimportant, but it is less important than other things…)

What seems to bother some experts is the fact that this usually requires two different types of cuts, a Swing Cut, followed by a Double Undercut.

As a working professional, but also as someone who does care for subtlety, I can tell you that this problem is purely academic, in my opinion.

No-one, nowhere, has ever been bothered by combining two different types of cuts, except some purist card experts.

The secret is simply to make a pause between the two cuts, to wit: You are holding the deck in Dealing Position with the left little finger holding a break above the bottom card(s) you want to transfer to the top.

Swing cut about two thirds from top to bottom, slapping the right hand’s packet on top, all the while retaining the break, which is first transferred from the little finger to the thumb, and then back to the little finger (try the idea with the “slap” as it looks quite convincing). Do this by saying, e.g., “And of course the deck must be cut.”

Pause.

Continue, “Well, today is Sunday (or the day it is…), so we give it three cuts… one… two… three.” As you are saying this, execute the “”The Double Cut” to the table as explained in Card College Volume 1 (p. 95), of which Michael Close says, each time we meet, that this is one of the best things in the Card College books 🙂

You might agree that, done in this way, the sequence is perfectly deceptive and does what it needs to do.

BUT, for the two or three among you who do not agree 🙂 … here is a solution that should satisfy even a hardcore purist.

To transfer cut one or several cards from bottom to top, hold the deck in Dealing Position and get a little-finger break above the card(s) to be transferred.

Start Actus Interruptus False Cut, by swing cutting about the top half into your left hand, and moving the right hand with its packet forward (with the right thumb still holding the break), with the intention of putting it on the table. But then you see some “dust” on the table, or want to move an object (card case, etc.).

So, interrupt the cut, by replacing the packet in your right hand on top of the packet in your left hand. In this action the broken cards from the bottom of the right packet are added to the top of the left packet, but the left little finger takes over the break held above the broken cards. The left hand has the deck again in Dealing Position, with the left little finger holding a break in its approximate center.

The right hand, after “cleaning” the table, comes back, cuts all the cards above the break to the table, and then drops the remaining packet on top; this looks alike an ordinary Straight Cut.

(From my notebook, 10th AUG, 2017)

I have another six solutions to the “problem”, which, as I said, is not really a problem 🙂

Handling Variation of McMillen’s “Injog Shuffle Control”

The original idea can be found in Michael Landes’ book Jack McMillen; see my take on it in Confidences (p. 90).

Here is a little different way of handling the situation.

Hand the deck to a spectator and ask her to shuffle and cut it.

Look at her stating, “You’ve shuffled and cut the deck, so nobody can know the position of any card, correct?”

As you are saying this simply stretch out your hand to retrieve the deck, which you then hold face down in Dealing Position. I call this procedure of getting the deck back from the spectator without paying attention to the deck the “Gesture of the Jedi” (mentioned in Mike Perovich’s The Vernon Companion, p. 6).

As you turn your head away, take the top card with the other hand and show it to everyone from left to right, “Please remember the card that the hazard of your shuffle has brought to the top of the deck.”

After having done so, insert it about a third from the top into the deck, weaving it into the deck’s right side (see “November 5 – The Lateral Insertion” in Hidden Agenda). From here on you may control it any way you know. Instead of inserting the card into the deck, simply put it back on top, and then do an Injog Shuffle followed by a multiple cut to the table.

This is very good, especially for stand-up situations in a parlor or on a small stage.

The Magic Memories 185 Pauses

Next week-end The Magic Memories 185 will go on hiatus, as I am attending what is possibly the tiniest magic convention of the planet, the Hintertuxer Zaubertage.

As a tit for tat I will tell you about it in The Magic Memories 186 🙂

Wish you all a successful and happy week,